Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy

The ancient Mediterranean basin was once thought to be populated by large, monolithic, cultural-political entities. In this conception, 'the Greeks', 'the Romans', and other stable and homogenous cultures interacted and vied for supremacy like early modern states or empires. Today, however, thanks largely to an ever-increasing archaeological record, critical and sensitive approaches to the literary evidence, and the impact and application of new theoretical approaches, the ancient Mediterranean region is instead argued to be full of dynamic microcultures organized in a fl uid set of overlapping networks. While this atomization of culture has resulted in more interesting and accurate micro-histories, it has also challenged how we understand cultural interaction and change. This volume draws on this new understanding of cultural identity and contact to address the themes of adoption, adaption, and innovation in Pre-Roman Italy from the 9th-3rd centuries BCE. The contributors to this volume build upon recent paradigm shifts in research that challenge traditional Hellenocentric models and work to establish a new set of frameworks for approaching the tangled question of how 'indigenous' and 'foreign' features relate to one another in the material record. Using focused case-studies, ranging from the role played by mobile populations in transferring ideas and technologies to the different ways in which 'foreign' artistic elements were used by Italian peoples, the volume explores what the - now commonly accepted - connectedness of a wider Mediterranean world meant for the people of Italy in practical terms, and offers new models for how concepts and ideas were transmitted, reinterpreted, repurposed, and re-appropriated in early Italy to fit within their local context.